Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-07-20
THE HOME OF BUDDHA.
STRANGE SCENES IN THE ANCIENT
CITY OF BENARES.
worshipers Bathing Together in the
Sacred Waters of the Ganges-The
Bathing Ghats-The Funeral Pyre-The
Priests and Devotees.

|
Bathing Ghats.The Funeral Pyre-The
| Priests and DevOtees.
| About 500 miles from its mouth on the left
bank of the Gauges, the great sacred river OF
the Hindu people, to propitiate which only
| few years ago mothers were wont to offer up
their babes, is the city Of idols and the home
| of idolatry, Benares. 1t is to the Hindu
what Mecca is to the Mohammedan, and
pilgrimage to it sometime during his life is the
necessary journey of every true Indian pagan.
Though there are no historical records to
prove it, it is generally conceded that it is one
of the, if not the most ancient city in the
| world, and that even when Rome was found
| ing Benares was centuries cd.
1t Is most peculiarly native in its streets, its
buildings and its inhabitants, and, of all
places in India, it is the place 10 see the abo-
rssinnl habits, customs and people. lJ num-
gers its temples in the thousands, but its
sur1nes are so many that no attempt is made
to number them. The sacred monkey runs
up and down the walls and over the affairs OF
the temple of Durga Kund and the sacred
bulls and cows wander about that of Anna
pura and feed on the garlands that the
worshipers cast before them. Just outside
the. city is the spot made sacred by BuddhaS
presence, and the tanks in which he bathed
himself, his garments, and his religious YES
sells, said to have been protected from the con-
tamination of man by fiery dragons. Benares
is the religious seat of India, and might not
inappropriately be called the capital OF
heathenlSm.
BENARES' BATHING CHATS.
But Notwithstanding its many temples and
IL,
little narrow streets and lofty buildings, its
curious bazaars, by far the most interesting
part of Benares are the bathing CHATS as seen
from boat sailing up and down the sacred
Gauges. Here one can spend hours and not
tire, for there is a panorama as changing as
kaleidoscope, and whose pictures are as bril-
liant as an artists imagination can paint
them. for every day large proportion OF the
inhabitants, high caste and low, go down to
the river to bathe in and to worship the divine
stream as it goes rolling on its way to the
ocean, and the banks lined and the water
filed with men, women and children are
sight never to be forgotten.
Here an old, gray haired man feebly washes
his shrunken legs and arms in the cleansing
and divine water. At his side stands young
Hindu matron, whose wet garment clings to
her body and show perfectly her well formed
limbs A Hindu dandy almost naked, sits
only few feet away on the bank combing his
long, oily locks and admiring himself in
little mirror, which he holds in one hand. A
powerful, athletic looking man stands not far
away swinging with all his might pair of
primitive Indian clubs while poor old bag
comes out of the cold water and exposes her
withered breast to the warm rays of the sun.
Little boys and girls run into the water,
splash about, and then run out again and roll
their wet bodies in the dust or lie down upon
the warm store steps that lead down to the
water On the top step sits motionless
chubby infant whose mother has washed him
and set him up there to dry.
DARK HUED ApIIRODITE.
A young girl wa ks trippingly down to the
edge of the water and daintily puts her well
shaped foot, the toes of which are perhaps
covered, though not adorned with rings, into
the water as though to feel its temperature,
and then suddenly draws it out as il it turned
out to be little cold. But Ct last she plunges
boldly in, and that wonderful river that has
witnessed more sacrifices or murders than
any other body Of water in the world re-
ceives her beneath It's surface, above which
second later she energies like g young mer-
maid and, like the dark hued Aphrodite,
shakes the drops of water from her hair.
Down the bank come four men carrying on
stretcher @ dead body, with only cloth
thrown over it, SO thin that through 1t can be
seen distinctly the outlines CT the corpse.
They pile up wood, place the corpse upon it,
pile on more wood and after few muttered
words light the funeral pyre, while the friends
and relatives of the dead sit around and watch
the body as it burns in the open air. The
wood drops down and one sees leg half con-
sumed or an arm burned in two. But the at
PENDANTS pile on more wood and the burning
and the watching go on. When all has been
consumed the last few ashes are cast into the
river. Down to the water comes q high caste
Brahmin woman clad in brilliant garments
and attended by numerous servants, for ell
aliks must battle in the sacred stream.
At intervals along the bank. On raised plat
forms, sit the priests, by far the most intelh-
gent looking of the great throng And when
they come out these priests paint the fore
heads of the devotees with peculiar markings,
| accept their offerings and encourage them in
their idolatrous practices. OFF they so to
some favorite temple to worship some idol
and make way for the new corners who wish
to battle in the sanctified stream. And the
divine river goes on in its course as it has
done for centuries, receiving the devotionS of
the faithful, who wash themselves in its
waters, and perhaps 4ejoicing that higher
civilization has pu' a stop to a practice that
made it the upc' ,nscious cause of many a
mothers anguish and worship. -Cawnpore
Cor Chicago Tribune.